After many twists and turns of fate and a huge amount of water under the burning Kaiwaka bridge, I sit me down at a new desk

to make the last of the edits for Apples of Aeden volume four, The Pillars of Aeden (only 56 pages to go out of 459) and upload the completed ebook as soon as that is done (an a week or so I trust). Apologies for the dreadfully long delay. We are now living in Gisborne (New Zealand), nine hours’ drive from anywhere, to be near our two delightful grandsons (2 3/4 years and 8 months). AND in a new and unexpected development, inspired by a trip to the Old Countries, the writing of volume five is beginning, not (as formerly planned) merely a short summary of the Wisdom of the West as recalled by Shelley upon her return, but an account of her further adventures as she finds herself (for the sake of her friend Anna) drawn into Edartha’s conflict between the allies of the Void and those who still hope for a renaissance, a new age – the Fifth Age, according to the reckoning of Aeden.

If you have read any or all of the preceding volumes, I hope you will be inexorably drawn into this last quest of Shelley’s, whose background is now the battle not for Aeden but for Edartha, our own Earth, so long partially endarkened, now slipping into a twilight presided over by the same mindset and deathwish that turned the World of the Aghmaath into a place of seemingly endless suffering and despair, and sank (in one Branch of the Unfolding) the ancient Island of Aeden beneath the waves.

If the prospect of volume V is of any interest to you, I encourage you to email me as the current Narrator – wizardofeutopia@gmail.com, and let me know what, and who, you would most like to hear more about – and generally encourage me to get weaving. I am, after all, no longer young, and time waits for no man, not even wizards! Or Blue Knights.

Also, do click on the ‘follow’ button at the top of the page, so you get email notifications along the way. It is a great encouragement to know there are people out there who are interested in the world of Aeden…

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This beta version on smashwords is for those who don’t want to wait and/or may want to give feedback prior to the ‘final’ version. I’ve just re-uploaded it – apologies for previous error in not removing page numbers for the ebook. You can always upload the latest versions of all Smashwords ebooks, at no cost if you already have prior version.

This volume, the Pillars of Aeden, concludes the main Quest of the series, that of Shelley and Quickblade, and attempts to also conclude a number of other histories, including the campaigns of the Boy Raiders and the Evergirls, the matter of the Frozen Knights and Moonwit the Blue Knight, the departure of the Fairies of Aeden, the transformation of the School of Urak Tara, the liberation of the prisoners of the Valley of Thorns, the fates of Korman and the Lady, of Arcratine the Sword of Korman, of the Tree of Life and the Heartstone, and of Aeden itself in the transition to the Diamond Age.

So I felt it was justified for me to put the draft up for early readers desperate to find out what happens, hoping that the final draft will be the better for their feedback, and that they will forgive any glaring errors in this, the first edition. The Age is perhaps also drawing to a close here on Edartha, and in the difficulties of our transition to the diamond Age I hope this book may be of some use. The link to the ebook on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/320474 (only on smashwords for this first edition, as they provide free updating of your copy when the new edition comes out.)

There are lots of new graphics and maps, and after some hiccups the whole file checks out on the epub check so it should go to ‘premium’ and thereby be made available to Apple, Kobo, Nook etc. There has been at least one nook reader hanging out to get vol II, after reading the free vol I. This encourages me to go on… vol IV awaits the editing narrator’s eagle eye.